Slide content:Some Definitions: Health Often thought of as the absence of disease World Health Organization (WHO) state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity Illness is a state of poor health 4

Slide notes:This introductory lecture will provide a high level perspective as well as some important definitions. We will begin by defining the term health. We often think of health as the absence of disease but this is a somewhat narrow description of the term. In 1946, representatives of 61 countries attended the International Health Conference in New York to ratify the Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization, which is the specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with global health. The WHO definition of health is that health is the state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Thus, illness represents a state of poor health. 4